Fiction Friday: 'The Fault in our Stars' by John Green

(Book and bed = perfect combo... Maybe not for photos though!)

Blurb:

“Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.”

My Thoughts:

I read ‘Looking for Alaska’ by John Green after I saw a quote from it all over Tumblr. I fell in love with John Green’s writing style immediately and it quickly became one of my favourite books. I’d been meaning to read more of his stuff for a while but didn’t – probably because I have the biggest ‘to-read’ pile you could imagine, but also because I’m quite cheap when it comes to buying book.

You can imagine how happy I was when I saw ‘The Fault in our Stars’ as part of Asda’s 2 for £7 deal In fact, the last book I reviewed – 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' by Rachel Joyce – was the book I bought alongside this as part of the deal.

Along with my already declared love for John Green’s writing style, I knew a lot of people were raving about this book and saying it had brought them to tears so I was fairly certain that, even if it didn’t make me cry, I was going to like it. I was wrong. I love it.

The story follows the relationship the builds between Augustus and Hazel after they meet at a support group for children who have, or have had, cancer. The relationship that blossoms is incredibly special and perfectly written, as is the friendships between Isaac, Hazel, and Augustus. It’s touching beyond belief.

It’s nice to see a book that touches on cancer in teens without leaving the reader depressed – there’s always an uplifting, positive emotion sweeping through, regardless of what tragedies might happen.

It’s a tragic love story but there’s much more depth to it than your typical ‘boy meets girl, they fall in love, they fall apart’ story. There’s real hurt in the words, there’s humour that makes you chuckle inside, there’s anger at the harsh reality of life but, there’s also the sense that life is there to be lived, not dwelled on.

The ending made me sob like a baby; not because it was hopelessly sad but because it was a beautiful truth.

What’s your favourite tragic love story?

Procrastination

It seems only fitting that I write a post about procrastination as a means of procrastinating, so here goes...

I currently have two pieces of university work to do. One is a 2,500 word essay for Literature of the Gothic, about the uncanny. It's alright, as essays go. It was certainly the lesser of 12 evils that I had to choose from. The two books I'm using for the essay are amazing, I really loved reading them - even though The Shining gave me nightmares, ha. So why am I struggling to get my words down on paper? I could sit and talk for a while about them in person, but when it comes to writing down my thoughts I get stuck. I think I'm so focused on getting the structure of the essay right, and making sure it's a really good essay, that I've put too much pressure on myself and now I'm sat here putting it off because... Well, I don't really know why. I should just put my head down and get it done. It's due in 4 days. I've still got 2000 words to do. I also have a 3,500 word essay due for PR. I've not even looked at the question properly, so that should be fun!

The workload this year has been so intense and I've been more distracted than previous years. It feels like nothing's going into my brain; like I sit in lectures and seminars, I write notes, and I go home only to forget everything that has been said. Then when it comes to assignments, I fall apart because I genuinely struggle to remember everything that I've been taught. Perhaps my brain's too full with useless information from years past and I no longer have room for new stuff, or perhaps I'm just not giving university the attention it deserves/requires. Either way, I don't like it.

So yeah, procrastination... It's a wonderful thing, isn't it? Technology makes it even easier for us to procrastinate nowadays. I mean, I always have YouTube open and that requires more attention than I think - despite the fact I say every time I'm going to do work that I won't open it because I know how much of my time it consumes. Then you have the social media side of the internet. Admittedly, Facebook is lacking somewhat these days, but it's still brilliant for chatting to friends and forgetting about work that way. Let's not forget Twitter either - so good for quick updates and brief insights in to everyone else's life. So good, in fact, we forget about our own life and get absorbed into everybody else's. Brilliant! Of course, there's always Tumblr should you wish to scroll through pages of pictures and posts about peoples lives, most of whom you don't really know. Though, you should be warned, it's mainly full of girls confessing they want to look like other girls and boys posting pictures of girls they wish they could get with. Other than that, it's alright though.

So why do we procrastinate? Why do we put off the inevitable, knowing it will only make whatever it is we have to do harder in the end? If anyone has the answer, do let me know!